Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Stop Poking Yourself! Stop Poking Yourself!

Dan Piraro's finished art is very similar to my sketch, probably because my sketch is very similar to some of his previous panels showing a person at a computer with a spectator standing to the rear, like this one:

Dan tightened up the father's dialog a bit, and added the Cyber Bully caption box. The resulting comic is more effective, and more realistic, for a couple of reasons: the father in my sketch was a little too articulate, and, it's unlikely that a bully would ever use the word "bully" to describe his actions.

The underlying truth in this gag is, of course, that an awful lot of human interaction is learned behavior, influenced by the family, for good or ill. I hope that we've added a note of sweet justice by indicating that this kid will grow up to be a slovenly, unkempt lowlife just like his old man. Not that there aren't plenty of bullies in tailored suits and neatly-combed hair-helmets.

As an antidote to today's depressing topic, we've got a couple of silly comics coming up on Sunday, January 15, and Tuesday, the 17th.